When you love someone, you set them free
by chicken fried
Summary: Viktor had let go of Hermione to make her happy. They hadn't been in contact since the fall of Voldemort. He then sees her at one of his teams conventions. Will he let the chemistry between them happen or will he let her go once again?
1. Chapter 1

Viktor's POV

Viktor felt dizzy. He had just finished playing a Quidditch game that his team had just won and was now in a tightly packed and suffocating room. Although the muggle air conditioning was at a nice temperature and drinks were served all around, something about the room was bothering him.

The VIPs were with them and were having conversations with members of his team, some were asking for autographs. He had only just gotten out from the showers but could still feel his muscles aching from the intensity of the match. He could feel the eyes of his manager on him and something similar to the look of disapproval was scribbled all over his manager's face. He looked down to figure out why. His tie wasn't neatly done.

He fixed it up quickly whilst thinking to himself about wanting to go back home as soon as possible. Although his team was one of the more successful of Quidditch teams, since the economic fall, money had been tight. The team had barely been able to buy new players or pay proper amount of pay for the players except for Viktor's as he was an important player. His teammates were jealous of this but that was one of the good things about being the best player in the world, your pay was important over others. His coach and team owner were hoping that todays little special meeting would bring a VIPs to invest in a pretty amount of money on their team.

"Krum? Hey, Krum?" Atanas Kirov, one of his team mates said, walking over to him.

"What is the matter?" Viktor asked in Bulgarian.

Atanas was a well known 'player' in his team and was normally seen with at least two girls by his side. To find him on his own was confusing Viktor. Atanas signaled to Viktor's left with his head and whispered something about a pretty famous young woman. Viktor didn't hear the rest of Atanas' sentence as he found himself lost in thought.

Hermione Granger had come to the VIP meeting. It had been a couple of years since he had last seen her after the fall of Voldemort. She was still beautiful as he remembered. Her brown wavy hair flowed down her back like a waterfall and her brown eyes still found a way to melt his heart. He didn't understand why she had come to the convention, she didn't even like Quidditch.

He was about to go talk to her but stopped himself and his longing desire for her as a freckled arm went around her waist. Looking up and carefully, it didn't surprise him to find the red headed boy. He had always known the boy had had feelings for her, and also knew that when he had dated Hermione, she was going to discover her feelings for him sooner or later. He had let her go to make her happy.

When you love someone, with all your heart, it never disappears. And when you love someone and done all you could for them, you set them free. If they had really loved you, they would come back. That was what Viktor hoped for, but looking at Hermione now, he doubted it would ever happen. But for him, as long as his love was happy, he was happy even if it meant that he would get hurt.

_**A/N First story of 2010! Hope you liked it. Might do a few more chapters**_


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione's POV

Hermione sighed as she walked by Ron's side. Ron had just finished watching a Quidditch match and had asked her to accompany him to a Quidditch convention. She had loads of paperwork to do but it was her boyfriend asking her and he had always gone to her MOM conventions so she had decided to go. He had muttered something about the team having a huge debt and considered helping them out a bit before buying the whole club. He went on and on about Quiddich so Hermione decided to pretend to listen to him. She still didn't get why Ron would talk about Qudditch with her after fourteen years of knowing each other. He should know by now that she didn't like Quidditch.

She had bought a new dress and had put it on especially for him, but being interested in what he was talking about now, he didn't notice. She was hurt by this but this was Ron she was talking about, he would only notice if it was about Quidditch, food, death eaters and... Malfoy.

She looked down at the floor for a moment and found that her heels had met a different texture of flooring. The ground had gone from hard to harder and bumpier, they were on stadium ground which meant that they were almost there. Ron had told her they couldn't Apparate or take the floo for protection of the players. She noticed that Ron was wearing his favourite pair of trainers and saw that there was a hole. She took her wand out and fixed it.

"Hey! What the hell did you just do?" he asked her.

"I fixed your shoe." she said, somewhat hurt. She hadn't expected that kind of reaction. He was probably so kicked up for the convention he couldn't control his feelings.

"We're here!" he said, grabbing her hand and racing for the front entrance. He pushed past a couple of people, dragging her with him and literally ran through the swinging door. He was lucky that it was still attached.

"Which way to the convention?" he asked one of the team's bodyguards who appeared to be having a break.

"Follow the crowd." he muttered.

"Bastard." Ron muttered.

"Don't be so rude!" Hermione said.

"Whatever, who cares." he said. "Come on, I want to see Nikolay Genev and Atanas Kirov. They're the best new rising chasers!"

Hermione found herself being dragged again and suddenly felt her face blasted with cool air as the two entered a very crowded room. The convention was filled with all sorts of people and Hermione could easily pick out who were the team players as they had their team hoodies on.

Ron had disappeared off somewhere, probably looking for the the two chasers. Hermione slowly walked around for a moment and felt a shiver go around her skin as if somebody was watching her. She guessed that it was probably the muggle air conditioning, it was pretty low down.

Ron suddenly appeared out of no where and put an arm around her waist.

"Guess who I saw?" he whispered into her ears.

She giggled as she felt his breath tickle her skin. "Your two seekers?"

"Chasers..." he said, disapprovingly. "You need to go over your Quidditch notes again."

Hermione blushed. "How do you know about the notes?"

"Snooping about your room?" he said with a cheeky grin.

Hermione glared at him playfully. "Don't go through my stuff again, I'll hex you!"

His arm left her waist and he let out a sigh.

"I've had a chat with Genev but I really need to see Kirov. I'll talk to you later."

He kissed her cheek then left her again, disappearing into the crowd. Hermione shook her head, tutting, and turned her head around to find her eyes meet dark brown ones.

She could feel an electrifying connexion and gasped as she felt it travel about her skin giving her thrilling goosebumps of some sort. They were the darkest brown she had ever seen and they were mysterious in a way as if hiding oneself. A moment later she found that the person's eyes reminded her of someone. The man's hair was of average length and his skin was olive. A picture started to form in her head and she gasped with surprise when the man turned his head aside breaking eye contact with her.

_**A/N Another chapter! I hope you liked it!**_


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione's POV

It wasn't because of the broken eye contact that caught her off guard, it was what she saw behind his ear for the short second before it had been covered by his hair. It was a tattoo.

Seeing a tattoo wasn't so shocking for a muggle, nor wizards these days, but the tattoo he had wasn't just any ordinary tattoo. It wasn't a death eater's one so there was no need to worry. It was a tattoo that said HJG, her initials, carefully hidden behind his ear next to his ear lobe. Nobody could have spotted it... Had she been expecting to see it? Why else would she have noticed it? It was so small, people would have thought that it was a mole or something.

The man could be no other than Viktor Krum. He had gotten the tattoo a year after they had began to date, he had told her it was so that he would always have a part of her with him. Also, seeing him here was no surprise, he was a Qudditch player!

There was a sudden awkwardness in her heart, she felt like a part of her was missing and something was eating away at her heart. She sighed for a moment as memories of their past together swam through her mind. They were what people called a 'had been'. She shouldn't be thinking about this anymore, she was dating Ron and was in a serious relationship. But why was it bothering her so much all of a sudden when she hadn't even put a thought on Viktor once since breaking up with him? Was it because she was seeing him for the first time in a long time in person? She hoped that her thoughts would go away quickly... She had a feeling that something was going to happen, good... or bad.


	4. Chapter 4

Viktor's POV

Viktor wondered whether to look back at her again, to see her beautiful chocolate eyes and full lips. It was just so tempting... especially with the way she was looking right now in her red dress, it was hard to look away.

He could see that Atanas was looking at her hungrily and was literally licking his lips like a hungry puppy. It disgusted Viktor to see him behave in such a way but because they were close friends, he tried to not let it get to him.

"Hermione Granger is her name?" Atanas asked in Bulgarian. "The red head must be her boyfriend, lucky bastard. He like just touched her all over."

"He is her boyfriend." Viktor muttered.

"You like her?" Atanas asked, looking as innocent as possible. "There was a rumor that you used to date her, is it true?"

"Mind your own business," Viktor said a bit too roughly.

"Ah! I see you're being protective over her?" Atanas said with a smirk. "Why did you let her go?"

"I never said I dated her." Viktor said.

"The expression on your face says different." Atanas replied. He whistled. "Man, look at those legs... they go on for miles! Imagine having your hands on them and rubbing them? Her ass and tits look fantastic too! Krum! Krum! Krum! Imagine me riding her!"

Viktor punched his team mate on the shoulder lightly enough to make him stumble for a bit.

"What was that for?" Atanas asked, feigning being hurt.

"Hasn't your mother taught you to any respect?" Viktor asked, scowling.

"Man, you're too protective!" Atanas laughed. "Say, if I banged her for a night, would you kill me?"

"You touch her and you will be."

Atanas chuckled. "You still have feelings for her don't you?" he asked. "I was just testing you there... You passed."

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you too."

There was a sudden yelling and a blur of red covered their vision for a moment. It wasn't until a pale face appeared that they realised the red was in fact, somebody's hair.

"Oh Merlin! It's Kirov!" Weasley boy said. "Mind if I have your autograph?"

Atanas looked at him before smiling cheekily at Viktor.

"Mind if I bang your girl for a night?" he asked in English. "She's quite hot. Bang, bang, bang."

"Sure!" Weasley boy began to say before realising what Atanas had said. "No!"

Atanas laughed. "Gotcha!"

Weasley boy laughed with Atanas at his joke much to the surprise of Viktor. He had always remembered him as a sensitive boy, but it could be because of the celebrity status of Atanas and the red head's infatuation with the chaser.

"Thanks," Weasley boy said, not noticing that Viktor was there. "Mind if I talk to you in private? I am wondering about investing in... Just come on with me."

Atanas looked at Viktor. "I'll talk to you later, need to make some cash for the team!" he said in Bulgarian.

"Sure," Viktor replied back in Bulgarian. "Don't be fooled by this red head, he got some tricks up his sleeves."

Viktor watched the red head and his friend leave him alone. Now was his chance to talk to Hermione in private... Should he?


	5. Chapter 5

Hermione's POV

After the sudden yelling from Ron, she knew that he had found his goal, the chaser. To see him and hear him sound so happy made Hermione smile because he rarely did so in her presence unless he was joking about or something, his smiles were never really for anything... normal?

Hermione sighed and started to feel lonely even when the room was crowded with people. She felt alone and abandoned and wanted to be with someone. She started to feel colder as the cold air touched her skin after finding its way through the incredibly tiny holes of her dress.

She thought about her quick moment with Viktor. Their eye contact had caught her off guard but had been kept in her mind. She felt as if they were still looking into each others eyes as the memory was still so clear and visible, it was as if it were still happening. Thinking about Viktor brought her to thinking about why they had broken up.

Why had they stopped talking to each other? Why hadn't they stayed friends? They were friends but... they weren't in talking terms, they barely talked. All she remembered was that they had a happy and loving relationship for about three years before he had unexpectedly broken up with her. He hadn't said much when he told her that they should break up, but that was how Viktor was, he hardly spoke. But she missed the way he used to whisper her name into her ears, telling her how beautiful she was, how much she meant to him. He had also taken her out to romantic place a lot and had spent as much time with her as he could and done things with her even if he had hated doing so. During those times she felt like a woman, a young woman in love with a man who in return loved her back. But now, she hardly had any of that. Ron was just into Quidditch, his two precious chasers, and his so-called fans who asked for his autograph. He did love her but... It didn't feel so real as she had hoped for it to be. Had their relationship only meant to stop at the best friend level?

How they had gotten together still confused her. She had moved on from Viktor surprisingly fast was what she remembered most clearly. After they had broken up, she remembered that she had been crying by the doorstep of her house where he had left her. Ron had showed up somehow then and had behaved the most sweetest and caring she had ever seen him, it was probably that moment that had made her fall for him. About a week after that they had started going out and had been for the past six years.

Coming back down to Earth she was taken aback by the sudden vision of Viktor Krum standing before her. It was probably a memory going through her mind but... why did he seem so real? Some of the details in her mind were off... like how much more toned and well fed he was and how his nose had gone a bit more to the left. He had another scar on is face which surprised her as she had only remembered that there had been two. It suddenly hit her that he was standing right in front of her.

"Viktor?" she blurted out a bit too stupidly then hoped for.


	6. Chapter 6

Viktor's POV

After finally packing up the courage to go talk to her for the first time in a billion years, he walked up to her as naturally and as normally as possible. He wanted to make this look like he was talking to any other ordinary fan so that he wouldn't catch the attention of anyone. He walked up to Hermione, and as he did so, he had his breath taken away by the sight of her.

He couldn't believe that she still had the ability to do that to him, to make him feel and look incredibly stupid. With one glance or peak and the meeting of their eyes, she could bring him down to his knees literally begging her to stop looking the way she did as she was killing him.

Standing in front of her, she looked a bit dazed. She reminded him of a good friend of his, Luna Lovegood, seeing the state that she was in. She was dreaming... reminiscing something that meant a lot to her. It felt weird to stand in front of her and have her not realise that he was in fact standing in front of her. It just felt... weird.

He was taken aback and surprised when she suddenly said, "Viktor?"

"Yes?" he stammered immediately.

"Um, it's been so long," she said. "How is the convention going?" she asked.

"Fine." he said.

Looking to his right, he saw that Weasley boy was having an animated conversation with Atanas.

"Your boyfriend seems to be enjoying his time at the convention." he said.

"Oh, you know about us?" she said, looking rather... disappointed?

"Well, you two came in with his arm around your waist."

"You saw?"

"How could I have not when a beautiful lady was walking in?"

Viktor paused. Had he just said that? He looked at Hermione and found that she was speechless. There was a sudden twitch in her cheek and she appeared to be slowly smiling.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have put it that way." he said.

"No, no, it's all right," she said. "I haven't been called that in ages. Just... hard to take in again."

Viktor was confused. She was so beautiful, didn't her boyfriend tell her anything?

"Your boyfriend don't say so?" he asked. "Tell him that he should, you are beautiful."

She blushed.

"You better stop saying that... I might burn up soon!"

He chuckled.

The two continued to talk and it was as if they hadn't had not spoken to each other in a long time. They suddenly felt taken back in time when they had been together. Their conversation flowed nicely and they felt comfortable with each other. They hadn't realised how much time had passed.

"Krum?" Nikolay Genev said, interrupting them.

Viktor turned around angrily to look at his team mate. He didn't like having an 'important' conversation broken.

"What?" he asked in Bulgarian.

"Atanas told me to tell you that red haired boy is looking for his girlfriend, he appears to not like you so he told me to warn you to go somewhere else." he replied in Bulgarian.

Viktor looked at Hermione who seemed to be trying to understand what was being said between them. He smiled at her as she thought hard. He liked how she looked like when she tried to figure out something, she looked so focused which was one of the many things he liked about her, nothing distracted her from what she wanted.

"Okay." he said. "Go away now, I need to say.. something."

Nikolay looked at him curiously before walking off sticking five fingers up for a five minute count down.

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked.

Viktor wondered if this was the last time he really had a chance with Hermione. They were 'alone' now with no one to really interrupt them. She had been dating the red haired boy for a long time and by wizardry years were probably going to get married soon. If he didn't do anything now... There was no chance to do anything about it in the future. Ever since meeting Hermione Granger and falling in love with her, he had given her his heart and lock and had thrown away the keys. His heart belonged to her. He looked at her determinedly in the eyes and hoped that everything would turn out all right.

"Hermione... May I take you somewhere for a moment?" he asked her.


	7. Chapter 7

Hermione's POV.

"Hermione... May I take you somewhere for a moment?" Viktor asked her.

She hadn't been expecting him to ask her that and had rather expected him to tell her something else... Why had she been expected that though? She was dating Ron... Did she still have feelings for Viktor? WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING ABOUT? They hadn't even talked for longer than twenty minutes or so! Nor seen each other since... forever!

"Okay." she said.

He smiled at her and took something out of his pocket. "Touch this and it will take you to where I will be."

He apparated and disappeared leaving the note on the table next to her.

Hermione looked at it and wondered if she should go or not. Making this one move, one action, could result with huge changes. She had a feeling she knew where this was going but did she want it? Would she throw away everything she had had with Ron for this? Did she still like Viktor? Love Viktor?

But maybe this wasn't where she thought it was going. He could have asked her to come for something else... Maybe he wanted to talk to her without being seen by other people. Maybe he wanted something else from her... Like something under her dress...

She needed to slap herself. Viktor wasn't like that. He was a gentleman brought up to respect people of all sorts. She gave the note on the table a determined look and was about to touch it when somebody called her name.

"Hermione!" Ron called out. "Hermione!"

She froze. She now had a choice of whether to go to Viktor or Ron. If she went to Viktor and not be asked what she thought she was going to be asked, she was going to ruin her relationship with Ron. If she decided to not go to Viktor and risk not being asked what she thought she was going to be asked, she was probably going to have an unromantic relationship with Ron for the rest of her boring life...

"What's that note?" Ron asked her.

She looked at him in horror as he reached for it. Just as he was about to touch it, she snatched it from the table and stared at Ron as she felt herself slowly start to fade away.

"Hermione!" he said. "Hermione! What's happening? What's going on?"

"I'll be right back... I promise I'll explain everything later!" she said.

And with that, she felt herself be sucked away into another world, leaving a very confused Weasley behind.


	8. Chapter 8

Viktor's POV

He wondered what was taking her so long. He looked around his castle balcony and watched as the sun set. He had watched it set everyday for all his life and had thus used to the slow movements of the sun. The next day, it would rise again, a new day. He felt it's rays bathe his skin and he closed his eyes and breathed in the Baltic seas air. He felt the air go into him and back out as he breathed out. He hoped that she would come soon... He hoped that she would take his question all right... What if he scared her?

He smiled as she appeared in front of him. She looked confused but smiled as their eyes met. He was taken back to the time when they had first met eyes back during the World Cup. He had been flying on his broom, looking for the snitch when he had instead found her. He had ended up with a broken nose and lost match after trying to impress her, he could have caught the snitch way earlier and helped Bulgaria win if it wasn't for that. But he didn't care, it had been for her and that was all that mattered to him.

"Wow, where are we?" she asked him sounding breathless. He loved the way she sounded. "This place is beautiful."

"This is my home," he told her, his heart feeling warmer by the second. "Do you like the view?" he asked, watching her.

"It's beautiful." she said.

He looked at her eyes and thought just how lucky the Weasley boy was to have such a gift. She was one in a billion. You couldn't find anyone else like her on this planet, muggle world or wizard's. If only he could have her...

"Like you." he whispered, but loud enough for her to hear.

He had meant the two words he had said. There was a saying that the definition of beauty was that nothing needed to be added or taken away to be perfect, it just was, and that was and is what Hermione Granger was.

She blushed.

"Shut up. This is becoming way to repetitive." she muttered.

He chuckled. "But you like hearing me say this to you. You still blush."

She grinned. "Do you still go speechless when I do this?"

"Wha-" he started to say but stopped to watch her her.

He smiled as she untied her hair and she gave him a seductive look, like the ones she used to back when they had dated. She had rarely given him those looks and only had for special occasions like his birthday or something.... He was breathless as he watched her. She was amazing and stunning, as always.

She laughed, keeping her hair loose. She looked at him.

"What?" she said.

He smiled. "The thing is Hermione... the reason why I asked you to come here was..."

She looked at him worriedly, as if knowing what was to come. This didn't surprise him though for some reason, it was if she had known from the start. What if she said no?

"And I was wondering," he said as calmly as possible. He looked at her in the eyes. "Well... I'm sorry I broke up with you all those years ago... I just wanted you to be happy because I thought that you had someone else in your heart... You can't love one if you have another in your heart... So I waited. I waited for you to come back to me. I just wanted to tell you that I still love you and need you. I was hoping if you would want to be part of my life again. I love you Hermione Granger. That is... all."

She blinked and stared at him. Tears were slowly forming in her eyes and she just looked at him with all sorts of emotions.

"What the fuck, Viktor," she said, her anger accented at his name. "Fuck you."

Her language caught him by surprise but her emotion did not. He looked at her apologetically, understanding why she was so mad.

She hit his chest with her fist and glared at him.

"Why did you dump me all those years ago? I loved you Viktor, I really did." she said, angrily. "I bloody loved you with all my heart."

"I knew that Weasley boy was in your heart. I hadn't been fully there. I had just been an interruption to you... and him. I wanted you to be happy, Hermione. If you're not, I'm not." he said, weakly. "You are dating him now, are you not?" he asked.

Her eyes softened at this as if understanding his point of view for a slight moment.

"Do you love him?" he asked.

Her tears came out faster all of a sudden.

"I don't know Viktor... I'm torn." she said, quietly. She looked him in the eyes determinedly. "I'll put everything down short. I'm torn between you two. I love Ron but I love you too. I forgot you for sometime to be honest but in my heart I always knew being with Ronald was just wrong. His hugs, kisses and touch were just wrong... How can you expect me to come back to you after breaking up with me without a reason to?"

"I don't expect to you to come back to me," he whispered.

"I would think we would still be together now, maybe even married." she whispered.

"But we're not." he said.

"And that would be your fault." she said, vexed, eyes glaring at him.

Viktor wondered if this was the moment if she was admitting that she still cared for him and wanted him. He wasn't sure but all he wanted right now was to hold her tight and never to let go. She was what he needed to live on every day, to look forward to the next day.

Silence fell upon them and she continued to glare at him whilst he looked at her helplessly in love. The sun had set further and the day had come to a close. The sky had gotten darker and the moon and stars could be seen painted in the skies. They were twinkling at them and Viktor looked at them, remembering the wish he had put upon one as a child. It had been to find the one who would be with him and love him for the rest of his life and him in return to her. The wish may have come true and he sure hoped it did.

Hermione who had been sitting on the floor for some time had stopped crying. Viktor offered his hand and helped her up. Suddenly they did a little dance of a sort and she was in his arms and was fiercely hugging him as if this was the last time she would ever see him again, which may be happening.

"I love you," she said.

The words were magic to his ears. In a course of one day, so much had happened. It was like Romeo and Juliet, they had fallen in love and had known each other for only a few hours before they killed themselves in the end. The story was different for Viktor and Hermione though as there was going to be no suicide to end their love for each other.

"I love you." she repeated.

"I love you too... with all my hea-"

"Don't say that." she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"The mouth is good at telling others lies." she said.

"But I am not." he said.

"Just tell me you won't leave me and I'll be happy." she said. "Just please don't leave me ever again, that way I will know that you really love me."

"I only left you to make you happy."

"It left me confused and lost."

He chuckled and kissed her for the first time since forever.

"I promise I will never leave you again." he said. "I am yours for life now."

_**A/N End! Hope you liked it!**_


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